Brussels, 11/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 10 April, the European Commission cleared the proposed joint venture between ArcelorMittal Steel Service Centres SAS (AMSSC) and the Swedish company BE Sverige AB. The joint venture will combine the steel service centre activities of the parties in Sweden.
AMSCC - belonging to the ArcelorMittal group (Luxembourg) - is specialised in flat carbon steel processing and logistics and is active on the Swedish market through its wholly owned subsidiary Arcelor SSC Sverige AB. BE Sverige AB, which belongs to BE Group AB, a leading trading company in the steel sector in northern Europe, is a steel distribution company on the Scandinavian market and is active in the steel service centre sector in Sweden. Steel service centres specialise in the finishing and processing of steel for the purpose of fabricating, plating or moulding steel parts.
The joint venture would combine the steel service centre activities of both parties in Sweden.. It would be active only in the distribution of flat carbon steel and would be jointly controlled by AMSSC and BE Group. On the Swedish market for steel distribution centres, the predicted market shares of the joint venture measured in volume would remain below 15% based on the parties' current market shares. Also, the joint venture would have to face competition from a number of major operators such as Dickson/Tibnor, Ruukki, GA Industri AB and Norsk Stal. On the other hand, ArcelorMittal already holds above 25% in market shares for several products used by steel service centres. After its study of the situation, however, the Commission concluded that the configuration of these markets would not place ArcelorMittal in a position where it would prevent other steel service centres of the region from having access to the products concerned (hot-rolled carbon flat products - excluding quarto plates - cold-rolled carbon flat products and galvanised steel products). The creation of the new company is therefore unconditionally cleared by the Commission which does not see it as detrimental to competition in the European Economic Area. (C.D.)